Aug. 27, 2012

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Deborah Hersman speaks during the NTSB board meeting, Monday, Aug. 27, 2012, in Washington, held to determine the probable cause of the accident that occurred during the 2011 National Championship Air Races in Reno on Sept. 6, 2011. / AP

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NTSB recommendations

NTSB made the following recommendations to make the National Championship Air Races safer. Mike Houghton with the Reno Air Racing Association said most of the recommendations have been implemented or are in the process of being made.

* Require aircraft owners to provide and engineering evaluation and flight demonstration to show the aircraft can handle race demands.

* Revise the race course to minimize maneuvering near spectators.

* Provide high-G-force training for pilots

* Evaluate the feasibility of requiring G-force suits for racers

* Develop a system that tracks discrepancies found during the prerace technical inspections and verifies that they have been resolved.

* The Federal Aviation Administration should correct inaccurate and incomplete information it is waivers for aviation events.

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Loose and cracked screws that had not been changed in 26 years and “undocumented and untested modifications” to the P-51 Mustang aircraft were the cause of last year’s deadly crash at the National Championship Air Races in Reno, the National Transportation Safety Board announced Monday.

The Galloping Ghost had never been flown at race speeds before the Sept. 16, 2011 event, NTSB investigators reported. When it hit 530 mph during the Unlimited race, “the airplane was being operated beyond its structural limits,” an investigator said.

Pilot Jimmy Leeward and 10 spectators died when his heavily modified World War II-era aircraft lost control while banking around a pylon at the Reno Stead Airport and slammed into the box seating area. About 70 people were seriously injured, many from flying shrapnel.

The board reported the cause after a two-hour presentation from its investigators and then repeated a list of recommendations it made in April that were designed to make this year’s race safer. The TravelNevada.com Reno Air Races are scheduled for Sept. 12-16.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., praised the NTSB for its “thorough” examination of the crash.

“Their final report provides important analysis and recommendations to ensure the safety for the tens of thousands of spectators who go each year to the Reno Air Races,” he said in a statement. “The report also provides clarity for those affected by the tragedy. Over the last five decades, the Reno Air Races have been so important to Northern Nevada, and I look forward to their return in September.”

The board said the Reno Air Racing Association should require aircraft owners to provide engineering evaluations and flight demonstrations to show their planes can handle the demands and speeds they’ll face in races. They also recommended a change to the race course to minimize “potential conflicts with spectators.”

But NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman acknowledged that it does not matter where they move the course, spectators will remain at risk.

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“There’s still not an accounting for how to protect spectators in an uncontrolled event,” she said. “You can’t protect against an uncontrolled event. You don’t know where the aircraft is going to end up.”

During the hearing, several NTSB members were highly critical of Leeward and his crew for making changes to the aircraft without sufficient testing. Investigators also reported that the crew did not report nine of 10 modifications it had made to the aircraft and failed to maintain the screws that held the trim tab in place.

The reduced stiffness on the trim tab system, which keeps the aircraft flying level, “was a result of deteriorated locknut inserts that allowed the trim tab attachment screws to become loose and to initiate fatigue cracking in one screw some time before the accident flight,” the NTSB reported.

When the aircraft shot into the air, the pilot experienced gravitational forces reaching 17 Gs, which are “beyond human tolerance,” investigators said. Leeward was incapacitated and the aircraft went down.

If a pilot and crew makes changes without knowing what will happen they’re “basically just playing Russian Roulette with an aircraft,” said NTSB member Robert Sumwalt. Pilots flying solo can take these kinds of risks, he said. But when a pilot takes risks at an air show or race “you’re not only endangering your own life, you’re endangering the lives of others.”

Sumwalt asked an investigator if the modifications to the Galloping Ghost “had a detrimental effect on the aircraft.” The investigator said the modifications “were the cause of the accident.” He also said that if Leeward and his crew had tested the aircraft at race speeds, the problems with the plane “would have been detected and fixed.”

Mike Houghton, executive director of the Reno Air Racing Association, said the NTSB hearing and recommendations “were were very good for us.”

“It was a validation for the process we’ve been though over the past year,” he said, speaking from the NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C. The association has already implemented most of the recommendations the NTSB made when it held a hearing in Reno in April, he said. And others are in the process of being implemented, he said.

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But he acknowledged Hersman’s concerns about safety for spectators.

“It’s like car racing or boat racing — there’s always going to be a certain percentage of danger,” he said. “As promoters, all we can do is do anything in our power to make it safe. But there are times when you’re not going to be able to plan for and cover every conceivable action.

“There are some things that are out of your control.”

But he said the association will review the inspection process to ensure that problems with screws and worn out locknuts are spotted and written up during the inspection process.

During the hearing, NTSB investigators said the screws were likely about 26 years old and the trim tab attachment screws were so loose before the accident that they could be inserted and removed using fingers only. No tools were needed, they said.

The race crew had made numerous changes to the aircraft to make it faster, investigators said. For example, the right elevator trim tab was fixed in place, allowing only the left tab to be moved. That placed an increased load on the left tab, they said.

In addition, the “filler material” used on both trim tabs increased their weight and changed their center of gravity, they said. That made the aircraft more sensitive to pitch control.

“It is likely that, had engineering evaluations and diligent flight testing for the modifications been performed, many of the airplane’s undesirable structural and control characteristics could have been identified and corrected,” the NTSB said.